Mansae Korean BBQ (Melbourne)

Fo0die dined as a guest of Mansae Korean BBQ and as such, the rating does not give any consideration to customer service.

Situated close to Melbourne Central and just across from HWKR, we made our way to the venue after work.

Opened since start of July 2018, 1.5 months when we dined, the name Mansae means “yay” in Korean.

Interior

With a brightly lit sign, it was hard to miss as we walked down A’Beckett Street.

On entry, there’s a small counter. Turning to the left is the dining area and bar lined with the kimchi and radish side dishes that the Korean cuisine is known for.

The dining area is made up of tables with two large tables at the front and the rest seating four with a bbq grill in the centre.

The interior has an industrial feel with the exposed pipes and very minimalistic with plenty of space between the dining area and the bar.​

Food/Drinks

The A4 menu offers a range of appetisers, stews/hot pots, bbq meat and bbq sets. The side dishes consists of kimchi, spring onion and potato.

We started off the fried rice cakes which was served with an intimidating red sauce which ended up being sweet and not spicy like we had anticipated.

The kimchi stew which Mr J would normally dread due to the spicy factor, wasn’t overly spicy even for Mr J. The stew itself was packed with plenty of onion, cabbage, spring onion and some pieces of tofu and pork belly which went nicely with the bowl of rice.

Onto the BBQ where we had their “Happiness” set which was accompanied by bbq sauce with wasabi, soy bean paste and roasted sesame sauce.

We first had the wagyu intercostal which the staff there advised is the bit between the ribs. This piece of meat was cut length ways as it was cooking on the grill so that there’s no chewy bits when we ate it.

Pork belly was up next and was a very fatty cut with a little bit of meat. The staff there recommended that we eat the cooked meat with the lettuce and spring onion salad, grilled garlic and the soy paste. We did exactly that and it was actually quite good (this is despite the fact that we normally would avoid fatty pork belly).

The wagyu beef belly was cooked a bit like a stir fry on the grill and went perfectly with the bbq sauce like the staff there suggested.

The favourite of the night was the wagyu cube roll; well seasoned and juicy. The flavour of the spring onion which was on top of the raw meat came through while eating.

While we’re not frequent visitors to Korean BBQ venues, the venue prides itself with using fresh quality premium meat (their beef is Master Kobe Wagyu 9+) and compared to the one other Korean BBQ venue we have been to this year, the quality of meat and marinade that we had at Mansae was tastier and a level above (which is also reflected in the pricing).